As we approach the end of the first semester, there is a lot to share and celebrate. As in years past, I will use the belief statements created by the St. Charles North Staff in the fall of 2013 to organize my thoughts.

We are committed to investing in the strengthening of our school community.

The Bullying Prevention Task Force, with 4-5 students from each graduating class, has established three goals around which they are action planning. These goals were generated after the students analyzed the data from last year’s school-wide survey. Increasing communication, providing more information regarding what is right/wrong and how to respond in the moment, and creating avenues to increase involvement in the anti-bullying message are the focal points of the goals. All students will have an opportunity to complete the fifth annual Bullying Prevention Task Force survey in January 2020.

We are committed to on-going learning to continually strengthen our instruction.

Throughout the full and half-day School Improvement sessions this semester, teachers invested time in furthering their work in Professional Learning Communities (PLC), prepared to administer final exams through the Schoology online platform, expanded their understanding of trauma-sensitive classrooms, and built their repertoire of strategies to support students’ academic and social-emotional skills.

We are committed to striving for excellence in all we pursue.

Our athletes, academic teams, performers, and student activity participants had a terrific fall. They raised money for charity organizations, engaged in postseason competition, participated in national training events, and performed for local Veterans. I am incredibly proud of the way our students value hard work both in and outside of the classroom.

As we continue to partner together, I invite you to attend PTO meetings. At these meetings, we share information about current and upcoming events and offer insight into some of the processes, such as student scheduling. We also schedule presentations on urgent topics, for example, the dangers of vaping and the school registration process.

I encourage you to utilize the Let’s Talk platform as a means to get answers to your questions, share concerns, and extend compliments or appreciation to staff for a job well done.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership as we work together to prepare our students for their future pursuits!

Our Breakfast with the Stars program honors individual stars within our school community. Each of these students is unique and special in the way they share and develop our school community! Congratulations to the following students: Jacob Abi-Rached, Jacob Barr, Maxley Baxter, Jillian Dennis, Joshua Duncan, Jorge Flores, Olivia Glab, Veronika Hokrova, John Kallas, Leah Kmiecik, Ashley Landau, Luke Laracuenta, Skye La Rosa, Thomas Larsson, Adrian Martinez, Hilary Rice, Josh Slane, Cade Smith, Daniel Surges, Daniel Tellin, Carly Topf, Rico Vallejera, Hope Woolwine, and Jake Zaccariello. This honor speaks highly of their performance, and they are one of the many reasons that St. Charles North High School is a school of excellence!

The Noon Kiwanis Club of St. Charles’ goal is to have ongoing projects offering fulfilling service to the children in our community. One of those projects is with the St. Charles Park District to provide ADA compliant swings in community parks in St. Charles. Another is to provide a wheelchair-accessible swing that will be installed at the new playground in Pottawatomie Park.

But playgrounds also need benches. So as a part of the Playground Project, the Kiwanis learned of a program from a company that would provide a bench made of recycled plastic bags. We know that plastic bags are environmentally hazardous, and this is a way to keep them from ending up in our landfills while making productive use of them. To receive a bench, the Club needed to provide 500 pounds of plastic bags.

SCN’s Peer Leadership program saw the opportunity to do the right thing for the environment and help provide a bench for a park that will serve disabled kids. To say they embraced the project would be an understatement as large bags began showing up that first week and continued week after week. After seeing the enthusiasm from their students, North Administrators also contributed to the project with more bags.

The result? With the help of this contribution, in less than two months, the Noon Kiwanis Club was able to collect more than 500 pounds. Peer Leadership is now looking to donate towards a second bench as a school.

In December, North Star Council hosted a leadership workshop for North students with Ted Wiese, known as one of America’s best youth leadership development speakers. Ted works with thousands of students every year to teach and enhance their leadership skills. Each club and sports team had the opportunity to send a few of their rising leaders to be trained at this workshop.

On Sunday, January 26th, St. Charles North High School will bring more than 500 volunteers together to fight world hunger during Make a Difference St. Charles, a Feed My Starving Children Packing Event. This community-wide service project gives students at St. Charles North the opportunity to donate their time and resources to make a difference in the lives of starving children. Feed My Starving Children provides logistics for the packing event, while local donors (that’s us) provide funds and labor to pack the meals.

Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 that tackles world hunger by sending volunteer-packed, nutritious meals to 70 countries. They also operate orphanages, schools, clinics, and feeding programs to break the cycle of poverty. This Minnesota-based charity spends more than 90% of total donations directly on feeding the hungry and has earned the highest four-star rating from Charity Navigator for 11 consecutive years.

To reach our goal of raising over $12,000 and packing over 55,000 meals, we need your help. Please consider joining us on that day for a 90-minute volunteer shift. You could also donate or fundraise to help us with our goal. Inquiries can be directed to Erin Manheim at (erin.manheim@d303.org) or to the Office of Student Life.

Approximately 1.5 million high school students take the PSAT each year. Of those, only 3.3% are Commended Scholars. Congratulations to Kyla Lannert, Meghan Lu, Samantha Rydberg, and Tobias Strader on being named National Merit Commended Scholars!

Throughout the year, many scholarship opportunities will come into the Office of College and Career Readiness. We encourage students to check these weekly. Students may access these scholarships in one of two ways:

1. The Scholarship Box - located in the office and materials here are regularly updated.

2. Local Scholarship Opportunities

Please see Mrs. Porter in the College and Career Office with any questions.

The Coolidge: A Scholarship for America

This is a Full-Ride Presidential Scholarship that covers tuition, room, board, and expenses for four years of undergraduate study at any accredited American university. Any high school junior who plans to enroll in college in the fall of 2021 and is an American citizen or legal permanent resident is eligible to apply. Deadline: January 16, 2020, at 5:00 PM EST. More information, including the application, is available at Coolidgescholars.org.

PTO scholarship applications are available in the Guidance Office. We have two $1000 scholarships available this year; applicant’s families need to be current PTO members to apply. You can still pay current year membership dues of $30 on PushCoin, the PTO website, or by check.

Pizza With The Principal is a way the PTO supports Principal Christenson with one of her goals: to get to know and meet with students to continually improve their experiences at SCN. About every other week, the PTO provides lunch for up to 16 students. Students are encouraged to discuss things that are going well at SCN, things that could be improved upon, and to ask questions. Often the conversations lead to brainstorming solutions. Following each lunch, Mrs. Christenson shares 5-6 items from the students in her weekly staff update, which has resulted in some changes in the school and classrooms.

Taylor Street Pizza has generously donated 50% of all pizza costs for the school year. Thank you, Taylor Street! Show Taylor Street Pizza your appreciation by dining in or carrying out.

Taylor Street Pizza

40W301 Route 64

Wasco
(630) 587-012